A quickie? or not

[Goober]

Would it be true to say that one large Western Digital VelociRaptor HD say 300 and up,  is better or at leased the same in speed but more reliable than two smaller WD VelociRaptor 150 HD in a raid set up.

1.Is one big HD better?

2.Is someone able to explain this set up by djt, http://orbxsystems.com/forums/index.php?topic=12828.0

were he uses a 150HD for OS and a 300HD for what looks like everything else, I know/think it’s some type of raid set up. But is it just the OS on the 150HD or is there some other programs on it as well.  How does this work? and is this a good option if you have the money. 

3.How do these HD here stack up. Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB 7200RPM 32MB SATA 3Gbs, they don’t get much of a mention by people, but WD say that there a good pick of gamers because of the 32MB. What do you guys think?

If someone can answer all these that would be really great. Goobs

[Goober]

Oh, no replies! I thought you all would have a lot to say about Hard drive and what's best. Nobody knows? 

[Maurice_King]

I won't give WD drive Case space , sometimes yes and sometimes no is the answer to your question.

I prefer to partition but many don't

[Goober]

Thanks for your reply Maurice, but looks like I'll just have to work it out for my self.

[Maurice_King]

Goober I have 3 X 1 Tb drives in this PC and 1 200 Gb , the 200 Gb is split into a 20Gb  Boot OS ONLY, nothing but OS.

The rest is split into 2 for My Amateur Radio and  Broardcast Radio Applications.

The 3 X 1 Tb drives are split into several drives each , functioning as Archive and Backup Image Storage , General Programing, Flight  Related, Racing Related etc.  all logically segregated.

My Profile and Common Files and Programing are totally away from the OS and I can rebuild in the time it takes me to restore a 2 Gb image to the C:\ Partition.

Just a reminder that you only have to back up the OS Drive as this contains ALL the information about every thing else on your system, hence my preference to keep the OS Drive small.

I NEVER install in the preferred default location either NEVER, because this is inviting trouble with known directory flood attacks.

Once again I use logical directories.

For instance I have no less than 5 Web browsers and they are funnily enough installed in E:\Browsers\Firefox etc etc

and the same goes for everything else.

How often have you wanted to find something  only to be stumped because you can't remember what the installation directory was.

As for speed the BIGGEST thing that will slow your system down in un-necessary indexing and Trail version of software that does not completely remove when uninstalled leaving behind orphan files.

I doubt in this day and age with the hardware we have available to us that you would see any significant advantage nor dis-advantage in using a large single drive whether it be partitioned or not v several physical drives further partitioned.

Multiple Drives with multiple partitions are surprisingly easy to manage too if your thorough with your maintenance and cataloging. I hope this is of some benefit.

[Goober]

That was great Maurice, your the best, that help to put things into perspective for me. Goobs

[skypilot]

Maurice, you have a 20g OS partition (or is that a typo for 200)? How do you get away with that? What OS are you using?

I have a 40g partition for my win 7 64 RTM OS and it is using 21gig. I have moved My docs, videos, pictures etc off the boot disk and moved the page file off as well and it is still 21g. I install all I can on another partition and only let the rude applications that do not give me a choice, install on the C: drive.

[Maurice_King]

Maurice, you have a 20g OS partition (or is that a typo for 200)? How do you get away with that? What OS are you using?

I have a 40g partition for my win 7 64 RTM OS and it is using 21gig. I have moved My docs, videos, pictures etc off the boot disk and moved the page file off as well and it is still 21g. I install all I can on another partition and only let the rude applications that do not give me a choice, install on the C: drive.

No your OS is NOT using 21 Gb mate  but your Temp folders and My Documents + The temp folders in your profile will be taking up a large amount of space.

It isn't a typo, and I gave you a bum steer too, my C:\ is 15Gb and I achieve this set up because of several things like I don't have the 3 Temp directories windows wants but have condensed these into 1 placed K:\ which houses ALL my working Data including the " Common Files " directory  CAUTION:-This requires you to edit the registry all on K:\ and my  Documents are on D:\ .

It is not hard to strip all the un-necessary fat out of Windows and make it actually work as an OS (probably why my FSX runs at 30 FPS smoothly) .

To edit your Temp Directories

Go to your "Control Panel" and then "System Tools" select the Advanced TAB and then System Variables at the bottom and edit the values for the Temp and Tmp to reflect you new location for your Temp Dir, do this in both the System Variables and User Variables Panels.

Now after a reboot your system will have just one Temp directory 9Don't forget to delete the other's and regain that space.

The default C:\Program Files\Common Files can easily blow out to 3 Gb or more with many files that are used by all sorts of programs, if you loose the OS then you WILL generally have to reinstall everything to replace these files, so by divorcing that directory from C:\ you not only go part way to preserving your current set up but save many hours should you want to reinstall and also quite a bit of space.

CAUTION:-This requires you to edit the registry. 

My default location for Program Files (not that I use this  ) is E:\ CAUTION:-This requires you to edit the registry rather than C:\

I NEVER install to the default location wanted by a program either but prefer to use a more logical method (makes it easier to find stuff too) unless that program absolutely has to be in a certain position. 

eg   O&O Defrag is installed to E:\System Tools\O&O, Fast Stone Image Viewer is installed to E:\Image and Graphics\Fast Stone , FSX to F:\Flight Simulation\FSX , rFactor to E:\Racing Simulation\rFactor and so on - don't get duped into thinking that some program has to go some place. All my downloads go to a Separate Physical HDD that is quarantined by my AV of choice and anything I download is scanned both in and out of that download directory before it is catalogued into my Program Archive.

Now an additional word of Caution NEVER download ANYTHING nor unzip or decompress ANYTHING to your desktop !! NEVER - Why because your desktop is a reserved folder in the heart of you user profile that also has symbolic links throughout your OS and if you get a Bug (read -malicious code of any sort) you can and may have just given it open range to KILL your system.

Use no less that 3 AV / AM (Anti Virus - Anti Malware Programs )  and when you run a scan do so simultaneously because if a bug can manage to hide from one scanner if usually cannot hide from both at once.

There are many other things you can do to both preserve you system and speed it up but I don't wish to hijack the thread anymore.

[skypilot]

Maurice - I do keep all of "MY...." folders on a separate drive as a start. You left out the page file - I do not use a page file on my boot drive but on one of the other drives/partitions. I have set page files on all my other drives - I lack sufficient knowledge to know whether this is a good or not so good thing to do (having multiple page files) rather than just having one page file on another drive. My page file on the boot partition was wasting 6 or so gig. I have now moved the TMP and TEMP off the C:\ drive.

How do I move the default install folder off the C Drive - I hate it when I do not get a choice to install in the folder of my choosing and installs to the C;\ drive by default? Also how do I move the COMMON folder off the C:\drive?

And while I am at it how do I move my user profile off the C drive? I have changed my outlook data files out of my profile on to another partition.

[Maurice_King]

All my comments here in are directly related to XP Pro but may be usable for Vista and W 7!!

XP isn't supposed to be able to use any more that 4Gb as a page file anyway and the only reason to have it on C:\ is for memory dump writing should you have a BSOD or similar event. the average person couldn't interpret what happened so there isn't any point in having it on C:\.

The user Profile (where just about all your settings are kept) should be set on another drive when first installing the OS but can be moved at a later date by registry editing I'll NOT elude as to how because if something goes awry the OS might not boot.

As for the default Program Files  location that is an easy one.

"START" "RUN" type regedit in the box. Now seek out " HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion  "

Now in the Panel on the right you will see a number of entries. The two of interest to you are the string labeled  "CommonFilesDir"  and "ProgramFilesDir" , now by double clicking on these they may be edited to reflect your preferred default location.

A word of caution. Some installer's don't give you a choice and some programs MUST be installed on C:\

After editing you can collapse the registry branches and exit regedit, and now copy the all of the C:\Program Files\Common files to your preferred location. DO NOT delete the C:\Program Files\Common Files at this time  as there may be files either not copies or not movable.

Once this is done you can experiment with what other original programing can be removed from the C:\Program Files and placed in your new preferred location. You may need to boot from BART PE CD, this is a rescue disk made from your original XP Install CD. You must remember as I said there are some things that can't be moved. By booting from BART PE CD you generally can  copy and paste freely as you booted from CD rather than the OS so files aren't locked due to them being open.

Now to what I consider to be the most important step, making a backup copy of your C:\Windows\System32\Conf directory. ( EXTREME CAUTION THIS IS YOUR REGISTRY ) and as such the keys to your system.

The reason I make a backup along with my Norton GHOST image is if your OS goes belly up and your image has failed for some reason you can do a fresh install and then boot from your BART CD, copy back into place the back up, reboot and the System is back to where you were.

Simple steps that will save you a LOT of heartache and time.

[skypilot]

OK tried it and it did not work for me for various reasons that I won't elaborate here - so tried to undo the regedits and it could not find regedit - long story short - restored a deleted folder (no not one of the ones you said not to delete!) and was able to regedit - I had made a typo - used a ';' instead of a ":" in one of the entries - I could not even do a system restore - all back to normal now after copying the previously moved folders.

The up-shot is for me for the sake of saving 4.0220% (913 Megs) of the free space on the system disk, I do not think it is worth doing at this stage.

[Maurice_King]

What exactly didn't work?  and that's why I said make a copies of your directories first, been there and pulled my hair out  .

I recently did this for a business here in the mountains that was worried about what would happen if they lost data.

Saved them nearly 60 Gb in rubbish that should have been cleaned out years ago, made a back up and 3 days later the HDD bought the Farm after some 9 years of 24/7, I replaced the drive and reinstalled Windows, restored my backup 40 Mins down server and Office back on line.

This divorcing procedure is best done when you first build a PC up because virtually nothing has been installed. Sorry for the hijack but this info should be of benefit to everyone.

[skypilot]

I have to say first off, that I learn by experimentation. Yes I confess I am a compulsive fiddler!

well I edited all the all references to C:\ under that location in the registry including the %ProgramFiles% - that was probably my downfall. I did copy off the folders first. I ended up with 2 'Program Files' folders on C:\ (yes two folders with the same name - had to use the creation date to distinguish between them!); I did not like that so I deleted one of them; then regedit could not be found even after navigating directly to it in windows explorer and there were a couple of other funny things too. Did not matter what I did, I had to have both 'Program Files' folder.

I tried several repair techniques to no avail. I ended up doing a fresh reload of WIN7 as it does not take long and I was part way through refreshing my machine with win7 RTM in any case so was no big deal. So I will leave it for the time being. I have moved off the TEMP, TMP environment variables and the page file; I have my outlook PST files on another drive and install all I can off the C drive so I now have 23.9 gig (16.1 used) free out of 40 gig; still ahve a few more programs to install though.

[Maurice_King]

We could get on Teamspeak and do some remote admin to help.

I didn't say the %Program Files% mate that is a symbolic link that MUST remain intact.

I think we all learn from experimentation so you aren't alone there.

Copying to the C:\ wasn't a good move either as the OS couldn't distinquish which it should be useing.

I can go through things on TS if you'd like .

[skypilot]

Thanks Maurice but I will give it a rest for a while (have a lie down and the feeling will go away?) I said I was a fiddler.

[Maurice_King]

That's cool  I didn't learn what I know now without fiddling reading etc and making more than my fair share of balls ups too.